David Filner assumed the administrative leadership of the San Antonio Symphony in November, 2012. Led by Music Director Sebastian Lang-Lessing, the San Antonio Symphony is celebrating its 73rd year this season.

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San Antonio Chamber Music Society

The San Antonio Chamber Music Society’s (http://www.sacms.org/) 2011-2012 season will take a unique approach to the city-wide Beethoven Festival that is led by the San Antonio Symphony. Most of the festival takes place in January and February 2012. But the Chamber Music Society has asked four of the five distinguished groups on their season to include a major chamber music work by Beethoven.

There is another difference this year. Two of the concerts will be in the First Unitarian Universalist Church, instead of their usual location at Temple Beth-El. They all still take place on Sunday afternoons at 3:15 p.m.

The Chamber Music Society kicks off their season on October 16 with the American String Quartet playing Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13, Op. 130. This late work is unique is several ways. First, it has six movements. After the world premiere, Beethoven decided to scrap the last movement and replace it with something shorter and lighter. That original last movement was then published separately as the Grosse Fuge, Op. 133. The fifth movement, Cavatina, was included on a recording of Earth’s sounds that was sent out into space on the Voyager probes. Here is a video of the American String Quartet playing the Cavatina:

The Grosse Fuge will also be the focus of another one of the Beethoven Festival concerts. The SOLI Chamber Ensemble (January 23 & 24, 2012) will arrange the work for their instrumentation (Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano) and ask four composers to write new works inspired by it.

Back in February, the San Antonio Symphony also played the Grosse Fuge. Is this overkill? NO! This work is so complex that three hearings aren’t enough. When you hear this work, you can’t believe Beethoven wrote it in 1825. A contemporaneity reviewer wrote in 1826 that the fugue was as “incomprehensible, like Chinese” and “a confusion of Babel.” But, now it is considered one of Beethoven’s masterpieces. Stravinsky called it “an absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever.”